Inventory Rebalancing
Inventory rebalancing is the tactical process by which a market maker brings their asset holdings back to a desired target level. When a market maker's inventory deviates from this target due to one-sided trading, they must adjust their pricing strategy to encourage trades in the opposite direction.
This often involves skewing quotes to make it more attractive for others to trade against the market maker's heavy side. This process is essential for maintaining a neutral risk profile and ensuring that the market maker does not become over-exposed to a single asset.
In high-frequency environments, this rebalancing happens continuously and is integrated directly into the automated spread algorithm. Effective rebalancing is key to long-term profitability and risk mitigation in financial markets.